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For new webmasters just getting started online, traffic generation is one of the biggest mysteries they face. Most new webmasters look for free advertising networks or maybe traffic exchange web sites. Rarely however does a new webmaster find a source of quality traffic for free.One method for generating web site traffic that is unknown to most webmasters is a form of advertisement called article marketing. This form of advertising is very effective if done right and can be done for free. I am going to show you step by step how to get started generating traffic to your web site using this method.How this all works is pretty simple. You will need to write articles that relate in some way to the topic of the web site that you want to promote. Writing the articles can be time consuming but your work will be rewarded later. Once you have some articles written that you feel are accurate and well written, you will write a small (about 2-3 sentence) bio about yourself and what you do.(your website) Include a link or maybe two within this bio to your web site. Now that you have all this done you will be submitting your article to article directories or open ezines and other similar sites. When you submit these articles you will also be submitting your bio which contains links to your web site. You can see how even in this short description, there is potential for traffic from this method.Now I can show you step by step how to do this effectively to increase your web site traffic.Step One: Research your topics.The very first thing you need to consider is what you will write your articles about. Make a list of things that are related to the topic of your web site. Write down anything you can think of that is related even if the list gets huge. If your web site was about golf clubs for example, some related topics would be golf shirts, golf vacations, golf lessons or golf etiquette.Once you have a good list made, prioritize the list putting the topics you know the most about at the top and working through the list. Once this is done, you should probably have at least 5 or 6 topics at the top of the list that you know a fair amount about. Start researching these top topics online using any sources you can find. Take notes of any interesting statistics or info that seemed surprising. Now that you have some research done and feel knowledgeable on these topics, you can move to the next step.Step Two: Writing your first articles.Now comes the creative part. I do understand that some people simply do not like writing or don't think they are any good at it. The truth is, writing is just as easy as talking. When you speak to your friends/family or co-workers do they understand you? Then you can write an effective article especially if you are working from the top of your list of topics which was prioritized in order of what you know the most about. Even if you struggle to get started, keep at it, its easier after you get started! :)When writing your articles do not try and write your article like an advertisement. Write your article as a piece of information that you are trying to share with your readers. Put real information that your readers can use in some way. Avoid suggesting that your readers visit your web site. The little bio at the bottom of your article already has your link and by suggesting to your readers that they click it, you make your article look like spam. People looking for information want to feel that the information has come from a trustworthy source. If your article is very accurate and informative, you gain credibility to your reader and often they wish to learn more from you. This prompts many readers to click the link in your bio to learn more without the need for you to ask them to click it.Write at least two or three articles for the topics you feel most comfortable about. After you have these articles written, try searching the internet for spell checkers, grammar checkers, and plagiarism checkers. You can find free online versions of all of these tools with a simple Google search using the terms above. Run each of the articles you have written through these tools and modify the articles accordingly. Even though you have written these articles yourself, you shouldn't skip the plagiarism checker. The reason for this is that the internet has millions upon millions of web sites on which someone may have written a very similar article. If your article looks to anyone that it could have been plagiarized, you will lose all your credibility and your articles might be denied or deleted.Step Three: Finding good places to submit your articles.Now up to know you will have done some pretty hard work. You've made your topic list, priorities it, researched a bunch of topics, written a bunch of articles, checked and edited the articles, and you still haven't gotten any more web site traffic. Well, patience my friend, we are getting closer. :)Before you get all excited and start firing those articles off to any old directory or website you can find, you need to do more research. This time you will be using the search engines to find article directories, or open ezines. Take note of the ones that are in the top results of the major search engines. These are the directories that the search engines are currently sending the most traffic to! Take down a list of the top directories from each search engine and filter out the duplicates. These are the directories you will want to submit your articles to. Some of them will be free to submit, and some will be pay to submit. To start with go with the free ones. Be sure when submitting your articles that you read any submission guidelines and adjust your articles if need be to fit.Don't submit your articles too many times. Only submit each article to a maximum of 3 different web sites. The reason for this is because we want your article to be a valuable source of unique information that is not available everywhere else. The search engines use bots and spiders to read the web sites you are submitting to. (we know this since they are highly ranked in search results) The bots/spiders are designed to look for unique content that has not been seen elsewhere. When the search engines find unique content, they tend to rank that site more highly than others with duplicated content. This means the search engines may send visitors directly to your article and if well written, will lead to many clicks on the link to your web site.Step Four: Wash, rinse, repeat.Really that is about all there is to it. Repeat the steps again and again. Submit new articles to the same places or to new places to see what helps. Beware though, when choosing a directory to submit to, avoid ones that automatically accept any article. Be picky, you are building a reputation here. :)Now that is the basics of article marketing. Remember the goal here is not to coax people to click your link, it is to provide a source of information that is unique and will naturally lead the reader to consider you knowledgeable and trustworthy so they WANT to click your link.I have used this method and it has worked very well for me. An example of one of my recent successes is a web site that I have recently started. In the first two days that my web site was live, I wrote six articles. I submitted these articles one each to six different article directories over the two days. I made sure the directories were high ranking on the search engines. It even took one day for the articles to be accepted and viewable on the directories. The next day I was pleased to find that my web site had 32 new members and I had orders to process! This is not a huge success but remember that was only six articles on six directories and not one of the articles asked the reader to visit my site.Obviously this is not the only traffic generation method. Some of you may prefer other methods. For me though this is the backbone of my web promotion efforts and it always brings some level of success. I hope it will now do the same for you!